Cegin Prydiau Plant/Holiday Kitchen

Jig-So Children's Centre

The pilot project, ‘Cegin Prydiau Plant/Holiday Kitchen’ supported local families in Cardigan and surrounding area who did not have access to healthy and nutritional meals especially during school holidays.

A local kitchen was used to prepare healthy meals for families entitled to Free School Meals or low income families that may not have been eligible for FSM entitlement as they were not on qualifying benefits. Here, parents developed confidence in the kitchen through participation in a weekly training programme and learnt basic cooking skills and how to prepare healthy meals on a budget.

The project also piloted two workshops for 11-16 year olds in Healthy Cooking, as many were caring for younger siblings during holidays and/or cared for a disabled parent.

Parents with younger children and babies were also able to use the Jig-So registered crèche facilities, directly next door to the Pwllhai Kitchen.

The project also worked with the Cardigan Food Bank and Cardigan Allotments encouraging and supporting parents to grow vegetables.

Jig-So’s vision for the project was to ensure that no child goes hungry during the holidays and for families to have access to good food.

“Without the funding from Cynnal y Cardi, the pilot project wouldn’t have gone ahead at that stage because it did enable us to test out new ways of working with families.” Buddig, Jig-So

“When the project came up I was really keen to get involved. I’m not a very confident cook myself but I’ve learned so much. So by me learning, I’ve been able to help the families, because I am in the same position as them.” Julie, Jig-So

“Before, I’d always buy ready made cheese sauces and different bits. I’d always buy only the sauces because I wasn’t a hundred percent – and curry sauces – but now I know how to do them from scratch, and they’re quite easy when you know how!” Sarah, participating mum